Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Staunton, May 25 – Russian officials,
who often describe what are obviously ethnic and religious conflicts as “criminal”
or “domestic” disputes in order to protect their own reputations, are doing
Russia no favors because their approach has led to a dramatic underestimation
of the threat Islamist groups now pose to the country, according to Galina Khizriyeva.

Khisriyeva, a specialist on Islam in
Russia at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISI) that is part of
the Presidential Administration, says it is critically necessary that officials
stop misleading their bosses and the public and accept the advice of experts
who are very much aware of the threat (ruskline.ru/analitika/2016/05/25/obratnaya_storona_tishiny/).

Many Russian officials, she says, belive
that “the fewer manifestations of extremism and terrorism on the territories
under them and the less people write and speak about them, the better for them.”That may protect their jobs for a time, but
it does nothing for the security of the Russian Federation.

These officials don’t want to listen
to experts who tell them about problems and they don’t want to describe clashes
as ethnic or religious, preferring instead to talk about “domestic” disputes.
But “this of course is not simply flattering to themselves but a very dangerous
and short-sighted position!”

Experts notice things that point to
problems ahead, like graffiti or articles in religious or ethnic media outlets,
problems that all too many officials prefer to minimize by suggesting they are
the works of individuals not groups.But
by taking this position, they allow these “individual” phenomena to grow into
something much worse.

Khizriyeva also points out that it
is also a mistake to deny the connections that exist between Islamist extremism
and Russophobia given that the former uses the latter to “destabilize Russian
society” and thus create a situation in which it has the chance to expand and
achieve its goals.

Russia needs to copy the experience
of countries where officials are encouraged, even required to listen to experts
on religious and ethnic extremism. She gives as an example Israel.
Unfortunately, she says, such practices are “extremely rare” in Russia and
officials turn to experts “not before but only after events.”

Cooperation between experts and
officials needs to be expanded in Russia, and the basis for that is for each to
recognize the competence of the other. They are not the same: officials have the
ability to act but they often do not know what they should act against or what
the problems are. Experts are far more likely to know those things, Khizriyeva
says.

As an example, the RISI scholar
notes that “today experts are seriously studying the problem of the influence
of Turkish Islamists in a number of regions of Russia,” but in doing so, they
have encountered official reluctance to talk about this threat and an
unwillingness to recognize how large a threat it has become.

She concludes her interview by
giving six pieces of advice to officials:

·First,
officials should develop a network of agents.

·Second,
they should avoid classifying inter-ethnic and religious conflicts as “domestic”
clashes.

·Third,
“they should more actively work with diasporas, communities and ethnic and
religious organizations.”

·Fourth,
they should monitor Muslim publications for Russophobic and anti-Russian
tendencies.

·Fifth,
they should make sure that all mosques and prayer houses are registered. The
unregistered ones are a threat.

·And
sixth, officials should “devote particular attention to apartments and houses
where several young men from Muslim regions live, often illegally.”

If officials do that and listen to the
expert community, Russia’s national security will be enhanced. If they don’t,
then it and they will suffer.